"JUDGMENTS," were the laws belonging to civil government, in things between man and man: such as are laid down in Exodus, the twenty-first and the following chapters. "TESTIMONIES," were such laws as preserved the remembrance of some great events, and testified to the peculiar goodness of God: such as the sabbath, the passover, and all the feasts. In giving his last charge to his son Solomon, David enumerates these several branches of divine jurisdiction: "keep the charge of the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep his STATUTES, and his COMMANDMENTS, and his JUDGMENTS, and his TESTIMONIES, as it is written in the law of Moses." And thus was the relation of God to Israel, not merely a common one, such as he bears to all men: but a peculiar one, such as he never had to any people, themselves excepted. That such a connexion did subsist between God and Israel, is clearly deducible from the EPITHETS bestowed upon that nation, throughout the scriptures. Because he singled them out from all other nations, he is expressly said to CHOOSE them. "The Lord had a delight in thy fathers, and he chose their seed after them, even you, above all people*." In consequence of this selection, he brought them up out of the land of Egypt, and they are said to have been DELIVERED†, SAVED‡, PURCHASED, REDEEMED¶. He is said to CALL them: "When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypts.' He is said to CREATE them, to GIVE THEM life, to have BEGOTTEN them** • Deut. x. 15. † Exod. iii. 8.. Deut. xxxiii. 29. Deut. xxxii. 6. Is. xliii. 1.7. Ezek. xvi. 3. Deut. xxxii. 18 He is called their FATHER. "Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? is not he thy Father that hath bought thee? hath he not made thee, and established theet?” These several scriptural terms imply a peculiar relation, a connexion far more intimate than the common relation of God to the creation at large, and totally distinct from it. Under the theocracy, RULERS were appointed: but these were selected by God himself, as may be observed in respect of all the judges; and they did nothing In every but expressly under divine commission. movement, and in every plan, the will of God was consulted. The theocracy commenced with Moses, and closed with Samuel, after having subsisted through a period of four hundred and seventy-six years. The rule of Samuel, as an elder of Israel, lasted twenty-one years, at the close of which time old age stole upon him, and wishing to relinquish the cares of government, or at least to divide them, a portion of his authority was vested in the person of his sons, and they became judges. So far from copying the inflexible integrity of their father, we find them delineated in all the features of covetousness and of oppression: they "took bribes," and "perverted judgment." For a season the Israelites patiently endured their wrongs: but at length their spirit was stirred within them to resist and to crush this tyranny. The blameless method of doing this, had been to make their appeal to their divine Monarch, and to have entreated Samuel, under the direction of heaven, to elect other, and upright rulers. But instead of this, they rejected the divine + Deut. xxxii, 6, &c. authority, so far as their power extended, they insisted upon an intire new form of government, and resolved, like other nations, to have "a king to reign over them." Deity granting them their wishes, the theocracy ceased, and their government became monarchical.* Our next object in this Lecture is to present some account of II. THE MONARCHY OF THE JEWS. The princes of Israel possessed great power, and in later ages, before the coming of Christ, it was exceedingly abused, as in the case of Ahab, Manasseh, and several others. It is evident that this change in the government was displeasing to God: for it is said, "He gave them a king in his anger, and took him away in his wrath;" and it is an inquiry worthy attention, what was the ground of this displeasure? I conceive that it was not the change of government as it respects the nomination of a king instead of a ruler, but the choosing of a king so far as in their power, to the exclusion of God; and on this principle he said to Samuel, "They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected ME, that I When we speak of the termination of the theocracy with Samuel, and at the commencement of the monarchy, we do not mean to insinuate, that the divine superintendence of the affairs of the Jewish nation ceas ed, or that God was less their governor, or that his relation to them was less intimate, and peculiar, than before. The fact is, their very kings were merely rulers of a different description, subjected to the same control, and held by the same authority, as the judges under the theocracy. Hence we see one rejected, and another chosen, one set up and another cast down, and the hand of God every where, in the whole machine of the Israelites' government, directing, regulating, and giving impulse to every wheel, every spring, every movement. Nor has his pe culiar relation to the Jews, his immediate superintendence of their concerns, and his miraculous guardianship of their persons, and of their interests, terminated to this hour. All that we mean to convey is, that the theocracy ceased to be the external and ostensible government of the Jews: that continuing to exist, it was in a different shape; and that as it respects its form, their executive power became monarchical. should not reign over them." Their criminality consisted in placing a man on the throne of the Deity, and in exalting a creature to the seat, which had, till that time, been occupied only by the Creator. Not any form of government is opposed in this declaration: but its force is directed against the presumption of the Israelites in rejecting a divine Governor. Their situation was peculiar was unlike that of all other nations; and they were not at liberty, on just principles, to make so material an alteration in their government without first consulting God, and having the sanction of his authority. So far from consulting him, it appears from the whole history, that they insisted upon having a king, in opposition to the divine will, and in defiance of all the consequences which Samuel foretold. At the expiration of the theocracy, Saul was privately anointed king, and afterwards publicly proclaimed at Mizpeh. From the time of his anointing, to his death in Gilboa, he reigned over Israel forty years. It would not be consistent either with our purpose, or with the time usually allotted to these exercises, to enter into a minute detail of the events of his reign. He drew upon himself the displeasure of God, by disobeying his express command, in relation to the extermination of the Amalekites, whom he had, at the time when they opposed Israel in the wilderness, devoted to utter destruction. From this period to the end of his reign, he is presented to us as an object of pity! It is said, "the spirit of God forsook him, and an evil spirit troubled him." It is probable that we are to understand by these terms, that the immediate direction which he was accustomed to receive from God was withdrawn-"The Lord answered him neither by prophets nor by dreams:" that his wisdom and prudence forsook him: that he was subject to a wearing, melancholy disorder: that he was given up to his evil passions and inclinations; and that a spirit of envy, hatred, and cruelty, took place of a spirit of uprightness, candor, and mercy. Perhaps actual possession of an evil spirit, such as those so clearly proved in the days of Christ, is to be understood. Josephus so considers it, and describes its operations as superinducing a sensation of suffocation, resembling those emotions which the evangelists describe as attending demoniacal influences: at least a species of madness seems intended. David was early introduced at court he had previously been anointed king in private in place of Saul; and while his amiable qualities, and his valor in vanquishing Goliah, drew upon him the affections of the people, they excited the fears, and the hatred, of the jealous monarch, who persecuted him even to the extremities of his kingdom, and aimed at nothing less than his destruction. While the father was seeking the life of this amiable young man, his son was attached to him by the most sincere affection, and "Jonathan loved David as his own soul." Never was the influence, the delicacy, the beauty of friendship, painted by so masterly an hand, as that of the sacred historian on this occasion. To read it unmoved, is to carry in one's bosom a rock of adamant, and not an heart of flesh; and to attempt to heighten its effect, would be as futile and as absurd as to think of adding brighter and softer colors to the radiance, with which the pencil of nature paints the west at sun-set. Saul at length fell in the field of battle against the Philistines at Gilboa, and (O, the ravages of war!) in the same unhappy conflict, Jonathan perished also.* See note 1, of this Lecture, at the end of the volume, |